Employee Sues Morristown Golf Club Over Labor Wage Dispute

MORRISTOWN, NJ — A former caddie at The Morris County Golf Club claims in a lawsuit filed in state Superior Court in Morris County that he and others were not paid minimum wage or overtime pay despite working long hours on the course.

The Morris County Golf Club, founded in 1894, is one of the most prestigious in the state, boasting an elect "members-only club dedicated to the spirit of great sportsmanship" and is surrounded by a 150-acre course designed by architect Seth Raynor.

The invitation-only club employs a roughly 30-member team of caddies who provide physical and moral support to golfers but claim they were not adequately compensated by their employers.

Jose Yanez, who worked at the club during the 2020 season, is suing for unpaid overtime premiums, minimum wage and unspecified damages. According to the lawsuit, Yanez filed the proposed class action suit on behalf of an estimated 50 caddies who worked at the Morristown-based association from August 2019 to September 28.

Yanez claims the caddies were misclassified as independent contractors and are only paid bag fees plus any tips, a policy that his attorney Douglas Lipsky claims violates state law.

According to the lawsuit, the Morris County Golf Club willfully violated the NJWHL by knowingly and intentionally failing to pay the employees the minimum wage. "No agreement, written, express or implied, exists between Morris County Golf Club and the Golf Caddies on the tips and bag fees counting towards their compensation from the Clubs."

The lawsuit claims that all caddies at the Morris County Golf Club were only paid the $80 bag fee, with the exception of Monday golf outings, when they were paid $40 per golfer. Yanez stated that he worked six hours per day, seven days a week, for an average of 45 hours during the golf season.

"The sole compensation Yanez received during his employment with Morris County Golf Club comes from the golfers: the bag fees and tips," the lawsuit said.

An administrator at the Morris County Golf Club did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Yanez stated that the Morris County Golf Club employs a caddie master, whose duties include assigning caddies to golfers, supervising and firing caddies and scheduling. The caddy master decides how many rounds of golf a Golf Caddy will work on any given day, the lawsuit states.

Yanez said the Morris County Golf Club employs significant control over its caddies. For example, at the end of corporate charity events, golf carts used by golfers and carts used by non-golfers would pile up in front of the pro shop, and the caddie master would instruct the caddies that they would not be paid until the golf carts were washed, parked and charged in the secondary and primary cart barns.

According to the lawsuit, the caddy master rewards golf caddies who consistently arrive early by assigning them a golfer in the morning and then another golfer later in the day. Caddies who take early morning loops are more likely to be assigned an afternoon round by the caddy master, which results in more compensation.

Bag fees and tips do not constitute compensation for the Golf Caddies' employment, and thus Morris County Golf Club cannot credit that money against its minimum wage obligations owed to the Golf Caddies, the lawsuit said.

Annual minimum wage increases are the result of legislation signed by Governor Murphy in February 2019 that raises the wage floor for most employees to $15 per hour by 2024. Since the $10 minimum wage in 2019, the law has increased the minimum wage by $1 per hour every year.